


More Than You Know

by Gellsbells



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas Eve, Christmas Presents, F/M, Post 2x08, Post-Break Up, Serpent!Jughead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 01:50:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13179846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gellsbells/pseuds/Gellsbells
Summary: Jughead and Betty are participating in a new annual Christmas tradition for the Southside Serpents, a toy drive. Betty confronts Jughead about the break up and Jughead is forced to examine his own motivations for pushing Betty away.Also, FP meddles.





	More Than You Know

**Author's Note:**

> This is my gift for my Bughead Secret Santa.   
> Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Jughead knows Betty has entered the Whyte Wyrm before she even announces her presence. He hasn’t seen her in weeks. Not since he told her, no, ordered her to go home. To leave him to his own destructive path alone. Making sure it ‘sticks’ as it were he had kept his distance. He thinks about the lone unopened present sitting under the Jones’ poor excuse for a Christmas tree. He had made his disapproval known when his dad had brought the scraggly thing in, propping it up in the corner of the lounge. Turning it around so that it’s 'good side’ is facing the couch. Jughead tries to tell him the _thing_ has no 'good side’. It’s stark branches and sad lean, a reflection of his own feelings, he glares at it each morning, cursing it’s very existence.

He puts the present there shortly after the night he breaks it off with Betty. No reason to hide it in his bottom drawer anymore, she won’t be coming round to visit any time soon. If ever. He doesn’t think he has the strength to give it to her now. And it would open the door to Betty finding her way in again. He had to make it stick this time. If he is ever going to protect her from this life, from Penny, maybe even from himself he must severe the ties completely.

Which is why it is particularly inconvenient for Betty Cooper, in her bright red and green Christmas sweater, to be standing in the middle of the Serpent’s hideout handing out neatly cellophane wrapped parcels of what seem to be Christmas Cookies. He watches as she continues to glide through the Serpents, a smile and nod to each one.

Jughead pushes himself off the wall and stalks towards Betty. She acknowledges his presence with a quick smile before continuing to describe the old Cooper recipe for the festive treats to Birdie who is listening intently.

He stands stunned for a moment at her seemingly indifference towards him. He would have expected at least a 'hello’. But wasn’t this exactly what he wanted. He guessed this was the definition of be careful what you wish for. But it wasn’t just him that he had warned her off. It was the Serpents, as well. She couldn’t be here. He wouldn’t allow it. He took her by the elbow pulling her away to the secluded hallway near the back office. He ignored the chuckles from the other gang members, reminded again that most of them had now seen his girlfriend, ex-girlfriend half naked performing for him.

He tightened his grip on her arm before releasing her in private, “What are you doing here Betty?” His voice was less controlled then he intended the barely contained panic permeating his words. She didn’t react, didn’t flinch. She simply smiled that practiced smile back at him.

“Handing out cookies.” Her tone is curt and to the point and he clenches his jaw in response.

“I told you, you couldn’t, that I wouldn’t let you be dragged down by me. That I won’t lose you to this world.” He had tried to bury the thoughts of her ‘serpent dance’ and what she was willing to put on the line for him, but at night he got lonely and his thoughts would wander.

“I’m not here to see you, Jughead,” she bites back before regaining her composure again. “Besides who comes to the Whyte Wyrm is not your decision to make.” Her look is determined, a challenge to him to tell her to leave again. To show that he is the one who makes the decisions. Calling his bluff as if she knows that since FP returned that Jughead no longer has the sway that he used to. He has the support of the teenage members. But teeneagers were not the ones to make decisions in a biking gang once the adults had their leader returned.

* * *

 

His dad had been keeping Jughead’s involvement in the gang’s activities at a distance, which added to Jughead’s frustration. Just when he felt that he might have been making some progress he had been frozen out.

“They still don’t take kindly to Northsiders being here.” She let out a scoff at the reference. “It’s not safe Betts.” He’s taken a step towards her, narrowing the distance between them. He fights the instinctual urge to put his hand on her shoulder, to play with the edge of her collar that pokes out from her sweater. Her eyes grow wide at his movement, waiting for him to make his next move when he takes one very purposeful step backwards away from her. She looks to the side, breaking away from his gaze and when she turns back towards him any sign that he has affected her at all has been removed.

“Good thing a lot of them were friends with my mom then,” she tells him cooly. He still can’t believe that Alice Cooper was one of them. That the two of them are both descended from Serpents.

“Betty!” Jughead turns in the direction of his dad’s voice as he steps from the open doorway of his office out into the hallway.

“Mr Jones.” Betty smiles in welcome and the two embrace, Jughead’s jaw twitches as he watches on. “I’m a little early, but I brought these.” Jughead watches on as Betty pulls another of those little packages out of her bag and hands it to FP who accepts it graciously.

He ignores the little pang of hurt and disappointment that there isn’t one for him. Betty can bake like no-one else he has ever known. But then again what did he expect after he broke her heart and walked away from her. From them. This was exactly what he wanted wasn’t it?

“You spoil us Betty.”

“So, is everything in place.” Jughead feels uneasy with how comfortable the two seem to be around each other.

“Yeah, we’ve had a really good turnout.” Jughead felt like an outsider watching the conversation.

He can’t hold his tongue any longer. “What is this?”

FP turns to him “ Well Jughead, you are always saying how the Southside has it’s own community  and that the Serpents are a part of that community. If we want the rest of Riverdale to see us as anything other than criminals we have to give them something else.” Jughead felt a little bit of pride that his dad had continued to carry on the work that he had started, instead of slipping back into old habits. “Betty approached me about doing a toy drive for some of the less fortunate people in our community.”

“And your mom is okay with you being here?”

The change in Betty’s confident expression tells him that Alice has little to no idea what Betty has been up to. “She knows that the drive is happening and has agreed to write an article in The Register. She doesn’t know I’m helping out.”

“Right.” Jughead knew that Alice would prefer Betty do have as little to do with the Serpents as he did after that performance. “Dad, can I talk to you?” He turns towards Betty. “In private.”

“Excuse me, Betty.” FP says with an apologetic smile.

“No problem I had more of these to hand out anyway before I was rudely dragged away.” Betty shoots a pointed look at Jughead, who tries his best to ignore it. He indicates towards the office and his dad pushes through the door taking a seat at the old desk while Jughead closes the door behind them.

He doesn’t even try to lower his voice. “What the hell, Dad.”

“Have you tried telling the Cooper women no, Jughead. It’s a damn near impossible task. And she is right. It’s a good look for us.” FP leans back in his office chair as Jughead continues to pace in front of him. This can’t be happening, all that distance built up over the weeks gone to waste. “With what we have going on at the moment we need all the good publicity we can get.”

He stops in front of the desk, leaning against it. “She’s not coming with us.” Jughead says definitively.

“Actually, she is.” Jughead rakes his hand through his hair, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, while FP continues to lean in his chair. “As much as Alice is going to drag me over the coals for it, it’s good to see a Northsider with us. Especially the one who gave the impassioned speech about us all joining together at the Jubilee.”

“She can’t be a part of this.” Jughead reiterates, and notices FP rolling his eyes.

“What a toy drive for less fortunate kids? It’s hardly a high risk situation, Jughead. Besides Betty organised most of this, if she wants to ride with us for one day. Then I will face the wrath of Alice Cooper myself.” Jughead threw his hands up in surrender before he gave a final groan as he left the office, making sure to slam the door hard as he left.

* * *

 

Christmas Eve.

Jughead pulls the straps of the bag tighter to his bike, the top box making strapping anything on difficult. Once he is satisfied that he won’t leave a trail of presents on the road behind him as they make their journey he steps back to examine his handiwork. Many of the other Serpents have attached side cars to their bikes to hold a sack of donated presents. Betty is flitting around the Serpents, with Toni at her side snapping pictures as Betty gets a few words from each one, no doubt for her own article in the Blue and Gold. Jughead only hopes that her article of what will no doubt be of support for the South Side would garner her the same negative response that her defense of FP did.

His blood already begins to boil again at the thought of her locker covered in pigs blood. ‘Serpent Slut’. As the Serpents start to gear up Betty heads in his direction.

“FP said I should ride with you.” Jughead eyes his father in the distance who gives him a thumbs up. “I’d feel safer with you,” she adds and he sees that she already has her helmet in her hands. “But if not I guess I can ask-”

“No, it’s fine.” Jughead had seen how some of the other Seprents rode. He didn’t trust any of them with Betty on the back. Jughead gets on the bike and holds it steady as she hops on the back. “Just hold on tight.” wrapping her arms around him and clasping her hands in the front for a secure hold.

Betty grips tighter onto his jacket as they pull away from the Whyte Wyrm, the rumble of the other motorcycles filling the air around them like an angry swarm of bees. FP leads them, with a santa hat glued securely to his helmet as the wind around the roads to their fist of many stops. Betty tightens her grip around the corners as the bike leans over and he can’t help but enjoy the way her arms cling around his torso as he admits that to himself that he has missed her touch. He has missed _her_ so much.

They’re at their second last stop when she confronts him. The Women’s Shelter on the edge between the North and the South the place where she finally manages to corner him. He had managed to avoid her so far. Busying himself with helping unload gifts while Betty flashed her best smile while handing festively wrapped toys into little hands. He felt the tug at his heart as he watched her. Before he would purposefully avert his eyes again, in case she could see right through him.

He had sneaked around the corner of the modified community centre to find some peace. A respite from having to watch the girl of his dreams right in front of him when he had told himself that he would keep his distance.

And still she found him.

He sighs leaning against the wall as she rounds the corner. She has that look on her face, the one that says that she has something on her mind and is determined to make it be known. He goes to leave the hallway but she steps in front of him.

He tries to stop her before she starts. “Not now, Betty.”

“Why didn’t you tell me Jug, about Penny?” He groans inwardly and remembers Betty hanging around Toni earlier in the day. No doubt asking questions about what might be keeping him from her, when Betty Cooper started searching for answers she had a knack for getting people to talk.

“I didn’t want you to worry and then get involved.” Jughead replies as he goes to leave.

Betty moves to block his path, “I could have helped.” He knows that, he knows that Betty would throw herself headfirst into most situations to save the ones she cared about, he just wasn’t so sure that he was worthy of it. That he was worth her risking her future for him, not when his Dad had just thrown away his own second chance.

“It’s my mess Betty!” He turns to face her and sees the flash of fear in her eyes as she backs away from him. He holds his hands up in apology as he lowers his voice, taking a deep calming breath. “It’s my mess to clean up. I got my dad tied back up with the Serpents, I got myself tied up with them. And now Penny has me and the rest of the gang running around Riverdale transporting drugs.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, looking down at his own feet unable to see the look on her face. The disappointment. “Because of me,” he says quietly.

He feels her hands on his arms pulling out his hands to hold in her own, “Juggie, I, ..” her hands are always so soft and gentle in contrast with his own.

“I didn’t want you to know because you would want to help and I don’t know what I might need to do next. How far I will need to go.” Her movements still. “I can’t have you going there with me. She threatened you Betts. I needed to keep you away.” He looks up to meet her eyes.

“We can work this out together. We always work these things out.”

“Not this time Betty.” She eyes him warily. “The Southside is dangerous. I don’t want you to be a part of this world. I won’t let this darkness swallow you up.” She lets out a laugh and he can see the tears start to well behind her eyes.

“You sound like my mom.”

“You’re too good for all of this Betty.” The truth is bubbling under the surface, the truth he tries to keep buried. “You’re too good for me.” Jughead sees the anger flash across Betty’s face and she drops his hands from her grip.

“I am sick of everyone telling me what I need, what I deserve.” Her voice is getting louder now, and he expects a Serpent to round the corner any minute to see what is going on. “You’re just  like Archie. _'Oh Betty, you’re just too good_.’” She mocks, as her voice twists in anger, her hands clenched at her side. “Well I’m not. and you should know that better than anyone else. I thought we accepted each other, all of it. I thought you could understand that that’s not what I want.”

“Betty I didn’t mean-” He isn’t Archie, he does know her. He knows that parts of her she keeps hidden from the rest of the world. The parts of herself that she has only ever shared with him.

“I thought you saw the real me.” She says finally before she pushes past him. She nearly collides with Sweet Pea as she exits. Sweet Pea looks to Jughead with a smirk and a suggestive eyebrow raise.

“We’re moving onto the next drop off point. If you guys aren’t too busy.” The smirk widens as Jughead pushes past him and moves to his bike soon watching on as Betty is talking to FP.

She doesn’t join them for the final drop point.

* * *

 

Jughead collapses on the couch as soon as he enters the trailer. The conversation with Betty continuing to run through his head. The need to protect her to keep her away from this kind of life was so strong had he really made her feel like that. The clenching of her fists had not gone unnoticed by him. He was sure that she would be bandaging them tonight and he felt a pang of guilt that he had been the one to put them there and wasn’t there to soothe her wounds.

He had tried to convince himself that she needed his protection from Penny. But he had left her alone and at the mercy of the Black Hood instead. A very real threat in RIverdale that seemed to have painted a target on Betty’s back. Yet even with that threat looming over her head she had helped him at the car race. She had made sure that he had the best chance possible despite what it might have meant for her. Later that night when she had explained everything to him he had told her how sorry he was. How he should have been there. And he had done it again.

He had pushed her away when she needed him. He had done it to protect her, in part. But then there was the overwhelming fear. Fear of her finding out more about the Serpents, that they weren’t just into toy drives and karaoke, about the trouble he was in. An overwhelming fear of her being disappointed in the person that he had become.

He turns around at the sound of the trailer door closing. FP flopping down in the chair near the Christmas tree and it’s lone present.

“Shame Betty had to head off early,” he comments and Jughead merely grunts in response. “She was pretty upset. Like someone might have said something to her.”

“We talked.” Jughead replies still trying to organise his own thoughts.

FP smiles as he looks towards the scraggly Christmas tree, which seems to lean to the right more and more each day. “She’s a special girl Jug.”

“I don’t want her with us Dad.” He admits. “She can’t be on this side of the fight.”

“Don’t you think you should let Betty make that decision for herself. Those Cooper women do not like to be told what to do.” He gives a quiet chuckle as he seems to reminisce and Jughead finds himself wondering, not for the first time, what exactly the history is between his dad and Alice Cooper. “You should give her her present though.” Jughead looks at the neatly wrapped present under the tree.

“Dad I -” Jughead starts before FP interrupts.

“I think she needs you, I think you need her. You’re both so damn desperate to protect each other you’ll end up destroying each other in the process.” His dad is looking at him with the same intensity that he did when he found out about the deal with Penny and Jughead sits up a little straighter. He hates it when his father is right. He pulls himself up from the couch and picks up the present, turning it over in his hands as he makes his decision.

* * *

 

Jughead’s heart is pounding as he sets the ladder up against the side of her house. Looking up into her room and the light that shines out from it. He needs to let her know. That he does see her, the real her. He doesn’t put her on a pedestal because he wants her to be perfect but because she means everything to him. He has to let her know that. That he never expected her to be that girl.

His breathing his deep as he climbs the ladder, reminded of the first time he made this climb. He was just as nervous then as he is now. His hands are shaking as he reaches the top.  He is thankful to see Betty in her room alone, on her bed wrapped in her doona her concentration fully on the screen in front of her. He taps gently on the window and her eyes fly up in his direction, her hand pressed against her chest as she pauses. He ()() for her to come and let him in but is prepared to stay perched on top of this ladder for as long as it takes for her to take pity on him. Or until his body gives out and he lands with a crash. Her face set in a frown she closes the laptop in front of her and makes her way over to the window. She pushes it open and nods her head for him to climb inside. Her present is stuffed inside his jacket and shifts as he climbs over her window seat.

She returns to her bed sitting on the edge while he stands in front of her. He had rehearsed what he needed to say to her on the way over. But standing in front of her now he felt that all the words escaped him. He notices the way she pulls on her bottom lip, not meeting his eyes with her own before he looks at her hands by her side. Bandaged as he predicted. He is on his knees in front of her in an instant. Taking his hands in her own, his thumb running over the white gauze that covers her skin.

Her eyes snap to his at his touch and she doesn’t pull away. “Betts, I-” there is so much he wants to tell her. He pulls the gift from inside his jacket and places it in her bandaged hands. She looks up at him and he nods. She slowly unwraps the gift in front of him. Her eyes softening as she runs her fingers over the title “Beloved”. She opens the book and a note falls into her lap.

He had considered, as he had held the gift in his hands in front of that lame Christmas tree whether he should remove it, but that simple note said everything that was his truth. He holds his breath as he watches her eyes move over the page as she reads.

> _A signed first edition for my beloved. Thanks for introducing me to your favourite author,_
> 
> _Love Jug_

“I see you. The real you. That night at the Whyte Wyrm, I got scared. I saw what you were willing to do for me, just like my dad and I got scared. Scared because I don’t want you to see this world and think any less of me. Better I push you away before you saw what I was becoming.”

“I said I support you Juggie, I meant it.” Her voice is strained, and her cheeks stained with tears.

“I know.” His finger is under her chin, tilting her head so that he can look into her eyes. “You are the strongest person I know,” he tells her.

  
“I don’t feel particularly strong at the moment.” Betty sniffs, as she blinks back tears. “I miss Polly, the Black Hood is still out there and my Mom and Dad had a huge fight and the only person I wanted to tell everything to, told me to stay away from them.”

“I’m sorry, Betts. Really.” Jughead takes her hands in his own and presses his lips gently against the gauze that hides her darkest secret. The secret that she shared with him and no one else. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Jug. We’re partners. But we’re both guilty of keeping secrets from each other to protect the other. If we are going to get through this we need to be honest with each other.” He feels the pang of guilt as he thinks of the one thing he hasn’t told her. The one thing that she could hate him for.

“I kissed Toni.” He says quickly, the last secret between them revealed quickly like ripping off a bandaid and he waits for the hammer to knock him down. Prepares himself for Betty to throw him out of her bedroom. “After you sent Archie to -”

“I know,” she sighs. “Toni told me at the toy drive. I’m not angry. It hurts, but, I was keeping secrets from you. I didn’t tell you the truth and you needed someone.” Jughead sees the sadness in her eyes and she runs her fingertips across his note again as if trying to find some comfort in his words. “You know it’s not Christmas yet.” She reminds him.

“I won’t tell Santa if you don’t.” He jokes and is happy to see a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

“Well, I guess fairs fair.” She says as she rises from the bed and moves to her closet. She bends down and picks up a box hidden behind a few stuffed toys and other boxes. “Merry Christmas Jughead.” He takes the box from her and is taken aback by it’s weight almost dropping it as he adjusts his grip and places it down on her desk. He looks over to her, an eyebrow raised in question as she encourages him to open the box in front of him.

He doesn’t know what to say as he is the contents of the box is revealed to him. “Betty, this is …” He wants to tell her it’s perfect, but he holds himself back.

“I expect a mention in that book of yours.” She leans up against his side. “When your a world famous author and that.”

“You will be the first name. Thanks Betty.” Jughead wants to lean down and kiss her. He wants things to go back to how they were, before the Serpents, before the Black Hood but he knows that will take time. For now he is happy to see Betty smile and to feel her body leaning up against his. “I should go before your mom finds me up here.”

“She’s not home.” Betty sighs. “After the fight, they both left. Looks like I’m spending Christmas Eve on my own.”

“Archie?” Jughead asks.

“With Fred, Kevin’s with his mom, Ronnie has multiple social engagements. So that leaves me here,” she says with a sad smile. “ I was just watching an old Christmas movie.”

He’s not sure where they are and whether he would be too bold to ask but , “Did you want some company?”

Betty nods with a smile. “I would love some company. Usually Polly and I would watch it together. But with her needing to leave town.” He sees the sadness in her eyes and he is reminded again of her strength and berates himself for making her feel any less. Betty being the glue that holds the Cooper family together and the weight on her shoulders.

She moves across the bed and pats the space next to her. He kicks off his boots as the mattress shifts under his weight as he settles in next to her. Betty leans over and opens her laptop again and presses play.

“It’s a Wonderful Life?” Jughead asks, as the movie starts to play, instantly recognisable.

“It’s a classic, Jughead, I thought you of all people would appreciate a classic.” There is a teasing lilt to her voice and he can feel himself getting taken in again.

“I think the last time I saw this was when Mom and JB were still at home.” He tugs at the sleeve of his sweater at the pain of the thought that this will be yet another Christmas without his mom and JB. Just like the one before.

“Sorry,” she says as she places her hand over his own, stiling his nervous fingers as her fingers trace the inside of his wrist. “We can watch something else.”

“No it’s okay. Like you said it’s a classic.” She smiles up at him and lets her head rest against his chest as he pulls her closer. He knows there’s more to talk about, that it will take some time to get back to that place that they were. To face what’s to come.

But for now he is happy to be cuddled up with Betty Cooper, on her bed, watching a Christmas classic and forgetting his troubles for a little while.


End file.
